The Center for Produce Safety’s 2019 Research Symposium is focusing on the biggest food safety issue the industry has faced in the past year with a two-part session, “Perspectives on the 2018 Romaine Outbreaks.”

Members of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement have adopted new rules requiring them to sanitize “open source” used water for overhead irrigation following recent E. coli outbreaks that led investigators to suspect water as a cause.

Growers in the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement will soon be sanitizing “open-source” water used on their crops, which has been the focus of at least two recent E. coli outbreaks traced to leafy greens.

Canada’s Fruit and Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corp. has received numerous calls from companies importing U.S. romaine regarding who’s responsible for losses in the E. coli outbreak in both countries.

The FDA has named Adam Bros. Farm in Santa Barbara County as one potential source of the E. coli outbreak linked to romaine — but it cautions that the finding does not explain all the illnesses in the outbreak.

In a trio of tweets Nov. 23, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb referred to plans to allow romaine to return to the market, and a possible new labeling standard to aid in tracing products in future outbreaks.

In a Thanksgiving Day tweet, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency believes the source of the E. coli-tainted romaine responsible for a nationwide ban on the lettuce is California.